Exclusive: Netflix eyes unscripted push across EMEA, with formats & docusoaps targeted

Too Hot To Handle

Netflix is looking to increase its unscripted outut across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), with local stories and shows that can be formatted for other countries of particular interest.

“We are looking for shows in three categories: formats/unscripted; docusoaps/reality; and docuseries,” Lucy Leveugle tells TBI.

Leveugle joined Netflix from Channel 4 in the UK four years ago to develop non-fiction in EMEA together with local teams. She was recently elevated to director of creative strategy across both scripted and nonfiction programming for the region.

Lucy Leveugle

In docusoaps, the cast must “really stand out” and in docuseries the focus is on stories people know. She gives as examples South African docuseries Senzo: Murder Of A Soccer Star and Norway’s Mister Good, Cop Or Crook?. “Everyone there knows these stories.”

As for unscripted and reality, beside Nouvelle École in France, recent hits have included Young, Famous And African, which has reached the streamer’s Top 10 in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria over four consecutive weeks. Also renewed were Spanish docusoap I Am Georgina and reality series Love Never Lies, “an interesting local format that we are considering adapting in other countries,” she says.

Although Netflix is interested in developing formats, there is no systematic strategy because to be adapted, a format has to be relevant in the country, she points out.

The streamer also, of course, likes to retain IPs but has developed a model that sees creators getting a fee each time the IP is remade. It is “an already proven business model”, she says, used for instance with Too Hot To Handle.

And risk remains of interest, although Leveugle adds that Too Hot To Handle is already “quite edgy”. She adds: “Bold does not have to mean shocking – it can be exciting, new, moving a genre forward.”